


A Winter's Ball

by VanillivilovesGronk (Lukutoukka)



Category: National Football League RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 11:51:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6609703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lukutoukka/pseuds/VanillivilovesGronk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The 27th December, the Manning family hosts their annual charity ball. Like every year, Tom represents the Brady family and plays catch-up with friends and collegues. But this year, an unexpected guest turns up and turns Tom's world upside down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Winter's Ball

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SubwayWolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SubwayWolf/gifts).



> Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to my first attempt at writing Brady/Edelman. 
> 
> This is my birthday present for the lovely, lovely SubwayWolf, my wonderful beta-reader (you should go and check his stories out btw!). Inspiration struck me on a loooong train trip (10 hours...), while I was listening to "A Winter's Ball" and "Helpless" from the "Hamilton" Soundtrack, hence the titel, though that is one of the few things to survive several stages of ideas, writing and editing.
> 
> A short note on "Alex", Eli's partner: I just created a random tall, muscular dude and named him after Alexander Hamilton, but SubwayWolf read him as Alex Smith. I'm fine with either reading and just wanted to clear that up.
> 
> For those of you reading "Of Ordinary Madness": I'm sorry for the long wait, but the next chapters are coming!
> 
> Everyone else: I hope you like it! You're always welcome to leave a comment - both praise and critique are very welcome!

It is the 27th of December and, as it is tradition, the Manning family host their annual Charity Ball. This year, the money’s designated for disadvantaged youths. Like every year, many of the rich and prominent have assembled in the ballroom, which today is decorated entirely in blue and white and overall very winter-y.

One of the assembled is Tom Brady, the only son of the Brady family, who had made their money with investments and wealth management. A tall, handsome man in his late thirties, wearing a tuxedo and with cheekbones like a Greek god and blue eyes, he represents his family at this Ball since forever. As always, he came alone and now mingles with friends, colleagues and business partners, a glass of red wine in his hand…

“Tom,” a hand lands on my shoulder and I turn around to the dark-haired and dark-eyed man it belongs to.

“Eli!” we share one of these awkward “manly” half-hugs, before he waves over one the waiters circling the room with drinks.

“I’m so glad you could make it,” Eli announces with a smile and a wink and I laugh heartily. As if this wasn’t a fixed date for all of us. “No, I’m serious,” Eli continues a little more serious. “The Edelmans have announced that one of theirs would attend today.”

“Now, that is a surprise,” I say. And it is. So much that I am sure my eyebrows vanished into my hairline because I pulled them up that high. The Edelmans had made their money with a rather vast spectrum of technology, but even though they did support many charitable causes, they rarely - read: never - attended events such like this. Normally, they kept themselves to themselves – which had created a mysterious, curious air around them.

“I guess we’re in for an interesting evening,” I comment when Alexander, Eli’s husband, comes by, wraps his arm around Eli’s waist and pulls him close, planting a kiss on Eli’s head. Playing football together, Alex and I share a fist bump as a form of greeting.

Alexander is a very good looking guy, muscular, well-trained, with blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair, taller than me and Eli by a few inches. The two of them are married for the better part of ten years - high school sweethearts - but they still act all goofy and love struck around each other. Though I constantly roll my eyes at them, I actually think it’s really cute. Talk about relationship goals. 

“I didn’t mean to interrupt you,” Alex apologizes. “What were the two of you talking about?”

“The fact that an Edelman is going to pay us a courtesy visit today,” Eli says.

I add: “I actually never met any of them, though we have some business relations to their firm. One of the few relations my dad still manages all by himself.” Both Eli and Alex smile, knowing my dad, who can be very stubborn.

“I wonder who’s going to turn up,” Alex speculates. “The old Edelman and his wife himself?”

Eli shakes his head. “I doubt it. Probably one of the kids. Or maybe more than one of them.”

“Two sons and a daughter, if I remember correctly,” I half ask, half say to myself, trying to remember the few things I read and heard about the family. Eli nods and then waves somebody behind me.

“I guess we’re going to find out not that far into the future,” he says. “If you would excuse me now, Peyton finally made it.” With this, Eli is gone. Alex follows him with his gaze, a slight smile on his lips.

“He’s always so stressed this time of the year,” Alex remarks. “Though as the Charity Ball is one of the few things he is allowed to do in this family, that is not that big of a surprise…” 

I nod, agreeing. Their oldest brother is the black sheep of the family, Peyton the one with the nose for the business, and Eli, well, Eli’s not bad either. At least that’s the impression you’d get listening to their dad, Archie. In reality, Peyton might be not that far away from a genius, but Eli’s at most half a step behind his brother. There’s no point in telling Archie though, in his eyes Peyton is always going to be the golden boy.

At that point, we’re joined by the newly-wed Watts, JJ and Ebba, both of whom are slightly tanned. JJ, who, along with his two brothers, is going to inherit a steel imperium his granddad and dad build up, is very similar to Alex in his build and thus dwarfs his wife, a slender, very elegant woman with long, blonde hair and emerald green eyes. Even though she wears high heels which add a good four inches to her height, she still is about a head smaller than JJ and I, but that doesn’t stop her from hugging and kissing me on both cheeks, grinning.

“I hear you two just returned from your honeymoon,” I say and the two of them smile happily and exchange a loving glance.

“Yes! We met some of my family in Sweden, then traveled three months through the rest of Europe and spent the last two weeks in the bahamas,” Ebba tells me excited.

“Yeah. We won’t be able to take any free days in the next years, though,” JJ jokes, causing us all to laugh. Alex then excuses himself, having seen someone or another halfway across the hall and JJ, Ebba and I start talking about Europe. Some time later, I fill them in on the Edelman announcement.

“Didn’t Rob have some connections to the younger son?” Ebba turns to JJ, who nodds. 

Rob Gronkowksi is a mutual friend of ours, making his money with a very good feeling for investments and an almost unreal talent for numbers. Despite his young age - I am more than ten years his senior - he earned most of his millions himself. I got to know him when I worked as an intern our family firm a few years back. Somehow we first got talking and then became good friends. He took me to the gym and managed to talk me into joining their amateur football team. Which is how I got to know JJ and how I injured my shoulder.

“They went to university together,” JJ explains to me and throws a glance around the room. “By the way, did you see Rob today? When we talked shortly before Christmas, he said he has big news, but wants to tell them in person.” With interest I look around the room as well, being curious to hear about Rob’s “big news” and to ask him about the youngest Edelman son, when I spot Rob talking to Eli and Alex. I call JJ’s and Ebba’s attention to him and together, we gape at him. 

It is one of the rare occasions to which Rob draped himself in a tuxedo, the expensive material clinging to his muscular frame, his bow-tie perfectly straight. However, the most unusual sight about him is not actually at him, but rather next to him: A tall woman - in her heels she doesn’t miss much to Rob’s height - with short hair and a distinctive nose stands next to him, wearing a floor-length black dress with a neckholder top clinging tight to her body and the skirt widening to the bottom. Rob has his arm around her waist and she smiles shyly at Eli, who talks animated.

“What a wonderful dress,” Ebba breaths, “it seems to have pockets!” JJ giggles and I grin. 

“Now, I think the notorious single man Rob Gronkowski found himself a girlfriend,” I observe. “Let’s go meet her!” We make our way across the room to the group, where Rob pulls me into a tight hug, nearly lifting me off my feet.

“I’m also happy to see you, Rob,” I manage to say and Rob lets go of me, laughing.

“Man, it’s been way too long since we saw each other!” Rob exclaims. “When will you be able to come back to training?” 

I pull a face. Rob’s not gonna like the news. “I… won’t come back to training,” I say, genuinely sorry.

“But why?!” Rob looks horrified, Alex has half a smile on his face and JJ full on grins and throws his arm - the one which is not around Ebba’s waist - around my shoulder.

“Because he’s getting old, that’s why!” On JJ’s comment, Alex and Eli - the two of our group close to my age - burst into laughter, Ebba smiles and rolls her eyes, Rob grins and the woman next to him looks a bit confused. 

I grin too. “He’s not completely wrong. I mean, I am 38 years old, I get more inflexible by the minute and my shoulder was pretty badly hurt - there’s no need to overdo it,” I explain. 

Rob has put on his puppy face. Despite being a bit taller than me, he manages to look up at me with his wonderful brown eyes. It is very effective on me - and he totally knows that.

So I cut him off, before he can say anything. “No puppy face, my decision stands! Don’t you want to introduce us to your lovely companion?” Changing the topic seems to be the right track, because Rob instantly straightens up, his face breaking into a big smile.

“Of course,” Rob exclaims. “What have I been thinking? Everyone, meet Kate, my girlfriend.” Everyone’s attention turns to the shyly smiling woman next to him, whose cheeks turn red. 

“Hi everyone,” she offers. “I’m Kate.”

“Hi Kate, I’m Everyone.” Alex offers the dad joke of the century and we all crack up laughing. Kate looks very relieved and flashes Alex a big grin, revealing straight, white teeth behind the dark red lips, and lightening up her whole face. Eli shakes his head and Ebba gives Alex a small clasp on the back of his head, before offering said hand to Kate.

“I’m Ebba,” she says and then goes on to introduce the rest of us. “This is my husband, JJ; Eli Manning and his husband Alex are our wonderful hosts tonight and this poor, single guy over there is Tom, the oldest of our small group, as you probably already guessed.” 

I fake pout. “First of all, I’m only a few years older than Eli and Alex. You are simply very young. And secondly, I’m very happy as a bachelor, thank you very much.” I flash Ebba a smile and wink at Kate, who grins and seems to relax.

“Ebba is a very interesting name,” Kate remarks and with that begins the usual asking-and-answering game around Ebba’s scandinavian background, how we all got to know each other, how Kate and Rob got to know each other (work) and the usual catching up. 

When someone mentions university, I turn to Rob. “I heard that you know one of the Edelmans?” Rob looks a bit puzzled, but nods.

“Sure. We studied together. Why do you ask?”

“We expect one of them tonight,” Eli chimes in and Rob reacts the same way I did: very surprised. 

“Well, that’s a new one. Maybe the old man is finally getting soft. Please don’t ask me why they kept to themselves that much to begin with, because I don’t know either. You’d like Jules, though,” Rob tells me. “You have much in common and yet are quite different. You would make a great match. Business-wise of course.” he winks at me and I shake my head, grinning. He always jokes about setting me up with someone, but thus far, it had never worked out. Which I’m always glad to remind him about.

***

A little while later, the two women and Eli are deeply absorbed by their conversation and Rob, Alex, and I are discussing the Patriots game against the Texans last week, when Peyton calls out for Eli.

“I’m here,” Eli answers.

We all turn around to Peyton, next to whom stands an absolutely inappropriately clothed man I’ve never seen before, whose face lights up when his eyes fall onto Rob. He makes his way over to us, grinning and winking at Rob who waves and grins back. So this seems to be the famous Julian Edelman. There is something about him that captures me - I can’t take my eyes of him.

While he greets Rob with a complicated handshake I can’t quite follow - not that I attempt to - and introduces himself to Eli, I use the chance to take a good look at him. He is small - he only comes up to Eli’s (and Rob’s, Alex’ and my) shoulder, but very muscular: his white dress-shirt spans over his shoulders and upper arms, the sleeves are rolled up to just beneath his elbows, the top two buttons are opened, the hem is tucked neatly into the black jeans. Absolutely inappropriate for a ball, but right now I couldn’t care less. And it isn’t really my place to criticize him, anyway. His dark hair is short-clipped at the sides and a little longer on top of his head, a strand of it falling into his forehead. He sports a tidily maintained, dark, full beard and wears no jewelry except for a big silver watch on his left wrist.

Alex yanks me out of my thoughts, nudging me in the side with his elbow. “Stop drooling!”

“I don’t drool!” At least I hope so.

“Yes, you do.” Eli turned up on my other side, grinning widely. The girls grin at me to. Julian and Rob are engaged in what sounds and looks like a catch-up conversation.

“Actually, I’m just back from Paris! I helped set up a branch of EdelmanTech in Germany and France, so for the last year or so I split my time between Stuttgart and Paris. Mostly I lived in Paris though, the guys in Germany were incredibly efficient and most problems could be solved via mail, luckily. Paris is just beautiful!”

“Really? I should seriously consider spending some time in Europe. JJ and Ebba here,” Rob points at the two of them, “are just back from their honeymoon, which they spent traveling through Europe and they were just raving about it. What do you think, darling?” The last words are directed at Kate, who laughs at him.

“Oooh, Europe is wonderful. I especially enjoyed Barcelona, the whole feeling of the city is just wonderful, the beaches are nice, it’s cheap and around every corner there’s something new to discover.” When she notices Rob’s confused face, she adds: “I told you I spent some time at other branches of Google. A year in Dublin, Ireland, half a year in Zurich, Switzerland and a year in Sydney, Australia. And of course I used the location advantages for some travelling.” 

While Rob recollects his jaw, Alex and Kate start discussing the advantages of some computer language and Eli teases Rob about not listening closely to his girlfriend. JJ and Kate strike up a conversation with Julian and I am completely lost for words. 

Julian’s smile… I catch myself in time before I groan and really start to drool. Damn, what’s with that guy? Meanwhile, Rob regained his posture and catches my gaze just as the band starts a new song and Ebba’s head snaps up. Seconds later, she and JJ vanish to the dance floor and Rob seizes the moment.

“Jules, you didn’t have the chance yet, what with meeting everyone else, but you simply must meet Tom. Jules, this is Tom Brady, Tom, may I introduce you to Julian Edelman?”

“Hey, nice to meet you.” Julian smiles at me and for the first time, I see the deep blue eyes of his. 

I get lost immediately and only get out a weak “Hi.”

*******

It is close to midnight and I have made my way outside, into a dark corner of the terrace, which is decorated and illuminated solely by chains of light, a glass of red wine in my hands, the music from the ballroom little more than a whisper. To my feet, the lights of New Orleans twinkle and the air feels slightly chilly on my face, which is flushed from the heat inside and me dancing with a number of people.

“Here you are.” 

The shiver that runs through my body has nothing to do with the nightly December air, but instead everything with the tone of voice this is said in and the man the voice belongs to. I turn around and lean back onto the railing for support. “Here I am,” I repeat, feeling slightly stupid. 

The contour of Jules’ face is barely more than a suggestion, yet his white teeth seem to twinkle when he smiles at me, coming closer. Somehow, I had managed to have a useful conversation with him, split over the evening until now, even though I had been very distracted by his eyes and smile. Even in conversations with others I had been distracted, seeing him on the other side of the room dancing or walking by. And damn it if he wasn’t flirting with me, looking up at me through his lashes, biting his lower lip and winking at me when our eyes met across the room. Driving me nuts. 

Over the course of the evening, Rob, Alex and Eli had all observed this to me and even JJ, whose eyes were practically glued to his wife, had commented on it. And now here we were, alone on the gloomy patio and I was once again lost for words. 

Jules was standing right in front of me now, craning his neck to look up into my face. “I was hoping for a dance with you,” he whispers and I can barely breathe. 

Still, I manage to put down my glass and offer him my hand. “Well, Mister Edelman, it would be an honour to have this dance with you,” I say and he accepts my hand, grinning, just as the band starts a new song - “If You Don’t Know Me by Now”. Really?!

We start dancing a slow waltz, me leading, my steps led by some deep down part of my brain, because this close to Jules I am yet again captured by him. His eyes, whose blue colour is little more than an idea in this light, his movements and how his body feels under my hand. And all of a sudden, we aren’t dancing anymore. His arms somehow are around my neck and his body pressing against mine, my hands finding their way onto the small of bis back all by themselves, pulling him even closer to me and finally - finally we kiss.

I lose every sense of time passing with his lips moving against mine, tentatively and teasing at first, until I deepen the kiss. He manages to get his hands in my short hair and in turn, I grasp his butt and damn, it feels every bit as wonderful as it looks. When he teasingly bites my lower lip, I can’t help myself and moan, which causes him to smile, breaking the kiss for a second.

I don’t know how long we actually stand there, making out like lovestruck teenagers, but when his phone rings it feels both like an eternity and not enough time at all. He smiles apologetically, but answers the phone nonetheless. His face gets serious and I tighten my grip around his waist. The call is short and on his end mainly consists of yeses and no’s. 

He ends the call with, “I’m on my way,” then stretches up to give me a short kiss. “I gotta go.” With that, he breaks away from me and vanishes through the glass doors leading into the ballroom.

“But…” I stay behind, alone on the dark terrace, my arms dangling at my sides, the chilly night air immediately replacing his body heat, making me shiver.


End file.
